The 'Instrument personalities" thread brought up the fact that instruments can definitely have a...um...bouquet.
Being a flute owner of six months standing, I notice that it smells like eau de spit. I dutifully shake it out after playing, and oil it pretty regularly, but I'm wondering what else I should do. It's pretty cold and dry here, so I worry more about it drying into crackly husk than hatching a fungus garden inside of the bore.
Or does the spit funk just complement my fiddle's old wood funk?
Note to TSS: I don't eat curry. Too reminiscent of grad student residence halls....
What's worse is actual BO. There's a flute player who occasionally comes to the Wig Museum who often smells of stale sweaty shirt and armpits. If I see him coming, I go and grab a chair on the otherside and the other end of the sesh. Especially as flautists tend to expose their armpits to the elements more than some.
More difficult to track down is the winker/ wonker who regularly lets hydrogen sulphide bubble from his bum. It could be a billy* of course!
And while we are on it, remember to avoid sitting down wind of anyone with gum or dental disease or anyone who just doesn't clean their teeth who just lets the halitotic breeze swirl by (especially problemaitic for whistlers, singists and flautists of course!).
It's a shame there is a smoking ban in public houses these days for so many many reasons and this vile olfactory onslaught is one of them! The fags used to mask most of this stench!
When it was new, about three years ago, the inside of my Mahalo baritone ukulele smelt a bit like new pencils- cedarwood-ish and glue. Although this is fading as time goes on. The inside of my Indian harmonium is redolent of pongy old wet cardboard- it must be the old skool wood glue (not wig glue, wood glue!). My £50 Argos keyboard smells like a computer.
My mate gave me a bagful of his old harmonicas to fix and tune up. Every one of 'em stank of fags. I sent 'em back to him with only the blow notes fixed.
A friend of mine had a hairy African drum (pony skin, apparently) in a damp house that smelt of mould. Most of his instruments (and his clothes) smelt of mould, but the drum developed the additional feature that when you thumped it, small maggots would fly out of it.
Thats pretty gross Jack.... Yeah a friend of mine had a lurcher skin Bodhrán he made, lovely player but the kids had a name for him; don don the smelly Bodhran!
Talking of mice, the feckin rats chewed a hole in my pipe bag once while I was away , perhaps they were trying to tell me something? or maybe they thought I was the pied piper of Hamlin and were getting their own back...... Or perhaps they were hungry and fancied the bag seasoning? Still I sorted them out and got a gortex bag.
Bought an old box once that had laid unplayed for at least fifteen years. When I tried to play it I was physically sick. The smell of stale cigarette smoke and stale beer that poured out when I opened the bellows was unforgettable.
I came across an anecdote about a prominent tango musician who specified in his will that he was to be buried with his bandoneon. So it was done as requested. But during the wake a bunch of fellow-musos got to talking about what a waste that was. It ended with shovels in the graveyard before dawn.
I have an old Austrian ocarina I bought off EBay from a seller who said it had been literally dug up. It smelt exactly as you'd expect, mould and rotting slugs. I soaked it in oxygen bleach. Smell gone.
I remember a thread several years ago on the Yellow Mustard on the subject of bad smells...they had to put a plate of cut onions next to one pungent fellow, just to cut the smell...
"I take a bath once a month whether I need it or not", said the cowboy.
Hey yhaal, I'm trying to work out who the odiferous flute player is. Not me I hope - I rarely visit the SWWM. And I like the rhyming slang "billy". There is a well-known banjo player who produces axillary aromas on an industrial scale - no names, though. I disagree with your assessment of the smoking ban. Also, when I'm not drinking (frequently), I don't even like the smell of beer which emanates from pubs!
In the days before proprietary pipe bag seasoning, we used to use Lyle's Golden Syrup mixed with hot water. You can't imagine what the smell was like after a few years. The modern stuff isn't quite so mould-friendly, but it stinks of animal glue and contact adhesive.
A chap I knew was stricken with a dreadful lung infection after making a bag from an old car inner tube. Fungus spores thrived in the bag's moist interior, and the stretchy bag tended to blow them out of the mouthpiece into his moist interior.
Going back to OP for a second, Try mixing a couple of drops of essential oil ( tea tree & lavender works well) into your flute oil.
Then when it warms up everything smells of roses!! ( if you used rose oil.)
Not a musical instrument, but this thread reminds me of a film camera I once borrowed off my brother. Every time the thing was turned on and the lens area opened up, it smelled horribly of sardines (my brother doesn't even like sardines). He offered it to me for free, but I declined.
I spent about a year researching what could be safely used to disinfect whistles (and flutes).
I've had lots of bits of tonewoods soaking in various things for a few years and check how they are going every now and then.
I would be a bit shy of using tea tree oil . It is a brilliant anti-bacterial, but it has some problems:
1. consumes most plastics better than turps or acetone.
2. it is volatile and has only a momentary effect.
3. It has nil affect on funguses and mold - by using it you actually prepare the environment and encourage them.
4. It disolves the natural wood oils and resins and can re-awaken movement in the grain.
5. When it dries it leaves the surface stripped and vulnerable to anything that wants to take up lodging.
Almond oil is the most often used oil for wet-woodwinds, but it does go rancid after a while. So some kind of additive helps - you can use the contents of a vitamin E capsule mixed with the oil - this prevents putrfaction.
I found that sandalwood oil is the best thing to dissinfect wood. It does not disolve the natural resins (or plastics), it is effective against most pathogens .. and it smells nice.
It is expensive, but you don't need a lot of it - I mix 25ml sandalwood to 1 litre of almond oil.
Get the pure stuff if you can. And get the Australian variety - it is more dissinfecting.
If you can't get the pure sandalwood oil, then you can use the cheap "aromatherapy" version - this is usually cut at 9 parts in 10 with rapeseed oil - so you don't even need to mix almond oil with it .. but it is less economic over time.
Now all I need is something to put into my Bulgarian Gaida .. the inside of the goat still has hair on it.
As a young fela someone told me milk on a hanky could help clean stale rosin residue off my fiddle. Genious here tried it for a few days and no one would play down wind of me in a session for weeks after the milk turned.
Gerry O Connor once took the belly of my fiddle while fixing it and found lots of old tobacco and stale crisps!
At Newcastleton, I was cleaning out the windway of my whistle with a leaf and was trying to stuff the leaf all the way through the hole. Then the leaf got stuck, so I was trying to push it out with a piece of grass but that got stuck too. At this point, I decided the whistle was going to be out of commission until I could get it home. I eventually removed the plant matter with a knitting needle, after a few unsuccessful attempts with objects like a wadded up paper towel and the tweezers and leather punch of a swiss army knife.
And to think I have almost three university degrees!
Instrument BO
Instrument BO
The 'Instrument personalities" thread brought up the fact that instruments can definitely have a...um...bouquet.
Being a flute owner of six months standing, I notice that it smells like eau de spit. I dutifully shake it out after playing, and oil it pretty regularly, but I'm wondering what else I should do. It's pretty cold and dry here, so I worry more about it drying into crackly husk than hatching a fungus garden inside of the bore.
Or does the spit funk just complement my fiddle's old wood funk?
Note to TSS: I don't eat curry. Too reminiscent of grad student residence halls....
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by Michele Sims
Re: Instrument BO
What's worse is actual BO. There's a flute player who occasionally comes to the Wig Museum who often smells of stale sweaty shirt and armpits. If I see him coming, I go and grab a chair on the otherside and the other end of the sesh. Especially as flautists tend to expose their armpits to the elements more than some.
More difficult to track down is the winker/ wonker who regularly lets hydrogen sulphide bubble from his bum. It could be a billy* of course!
And while we are on it, remember to avoid sitting down wind of anyone with gum or dental disease or anyone who just doesn't clean their teeth who just lets the halitotic breeze swirl by (especially problemaitic for whistlers, singists and flautists of course!).
It's a shame there is a smoking ban in public houses these days for so many many reasons and this vile olfactory onslaught is one of them! The fags used to mask most of this stench!
* Billy Bunter: punter
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: Instrument BO
My pipes smell like leather and metal polish. Not too bad.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: Instrument BO
When it was new, about three years ago, the inside of my Mahalo baritone ukulele smelt a bit like new pencils- cedarwood-ish and glue. Although this is fading as time goes on. The inside of my Indian harmonium is redolent of pongy old wet cardboard- it must be the old skool wood glue (not wig glue, wood glue!). My £50 Argos keyboard smells like a computer.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: Instrument BO
My mate gave me a bagful of his old harmonicas to fix and tune up. Every one of 'em stank of fags. I sent 'em back to him with only the blow notes fixed.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: Instrument BO
A friend of mine had a hairy African drum (pony skin, apparently) in a damp house that smelt of mould. Most of his instruments (and his clothes) smelt of mould, but the drum developed the additional feature that when you thumped it, small maggots would fly out of it.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by Jack Campin
Re: Instrument BO
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the musky smell of older instruments, especially ones that have sat in an old case for a while.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by banshee misfortune
Re: Instrument BO
"he drum developed the additional feature that when you thumped it, small maggots would fly out of it."
Wow, that would be an entire brand new thing to whinge about in regards to bodhran players in sessions if that happened with bodhrans.
"You can't hear the tune over the drumming, it's appalling out of time, and the goddamned maggots keep flying into my pint!"
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Instrument BO
The whole notion of a moldy pony hide drum spewing maggots (not in my pint, thank you) is disturbing on many levels.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by Michele Sims
Re: Instrument BO
Thats pretty gross Jack.... Yeah a friend of mine had a lurcher skin Bodhrán he made, lovely player but the kids had a name for him; don don the smelly Bodhran!
or maybe they thought I was the pied piper of Hamlin and were getting their own back...... Or perhaps they were hungry and fancied the bag seasoning? Still I sorted them out and got a gortex bag. 
Talking of mice, the feckin rats chewed a hole in my pipe bag once while I was away , perhaps they were trying to tell me something?
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by piobagusfidil
Re: Instrument BO
The gimbri with whose intriguing stridulations Robin Williamson commenced The Incredible String Band's second album was subsequently eaten by rats.
According to Robin Williamson, I think.
Perhaps, anyway.
A gimbri is a sort of bowed Arab fiddle job. I doubt if the rats enjoyed it much.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by nicholas
Re: Instrument BO
I associate it with doing Ancient History A-Level in 1969.
# Posted on July 8th 2011 by nicholas
Re: Instrument BO
Bought an old box once that had laid unplayed for at least fifteen years. When I tried to play it I was physically sick. The smell of stale cigarette smoke and stale beer that poured out when I opened the bellows was unforgettable.
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by Free Reed
Re: Instrument BO
I imagine the inside of a GHB bag gets pretty desperate.
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Instrument BO
I came across an anecdote about a prominent tango musician who specified in his will that he was to be buried with his bandoneon. So it was done as requested. But during the wake a bunch of fellow-musos got to talking about what a waste that was. It ended with shovels in the graveyard before dawn.
I have an old Austrian ocarina I bought off EBay from a seller who said it had been literally dug up. It smelt exactly as you'd expect, mould and rotting slugs. I soaked it in oxygen bleach. Smell gone.
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by Jack Campin
Re: Instrument BO
I remember a thread several years ago on the Yellow Mustard on the subject of bad smells...they had to put a plate of cut onions next to one pungent fellow, just to cut the smell...
"I take a bath once a month whether I need it or not", said the cowboy.
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Instrument BO
Hey yhaal, I'm trying to work out who the odiferous flute player is. Not me I hope - I rarely visit the SWWM. And I like the rhyming slang "billy". There is a well-known banjo player who produces axillary aromas on an industrial scale - no names, though. I disagree with your assessment of the smoking ban. Also, when I'm not drinking (frequently), I don't even like the smell of beer which emanates from pubs!
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by Rudall the time
Re: Instrument BO
In the days before proprietary pipe bag seasoning, we used to use Lyle's Golden Syrup mixed with hot water. You can't imagine what the smell was like after a few years. The modern stuff isn't quite so mould-friendly, but it stinks of animal glue and contact adhesive.
A chap I knew was stricken with a dreadful lung infection after making a bag from an old car inner tube. Fungus spores thrived in the bag's moist interior, and the stretchy bag tended to blow them out of the mouthpiece into his moist interior.
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by gam
Re: Instrument BO
There's a lot to be said for cauld wind pipes.
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by Weejie
Re: Instrument BO
gam - sounds like your friend may have had aspergillosis - can be fatal:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002302/
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by Rudall the time
Re: Instrument BO
Going back to OP for a second, Try mixing a couple of drops of essential oil ( tea tree & lavender works well) into your flute oil.
Then when it warms up everything smells of roses!! ( if you used rose oil.)
# Posted on July 9th 2011 by banjoburger
Re: Instrument BO
Instead of shaking out the spit, go to the music store and get a wooly tool that is used specifically to wipe it out.
# Posted on July 10th 2011 by shaskeen
Re: Instrument BO
Not a musical instrument, but this thread reminds me of a film camera I once borrowed off my brother. Every time the thing was turned on and the lens area opened up, it smelled horribly of sardines (my brother doesn't even like sardines). He offered it to me for free, but I declined.
# Posted on July 10th 2011 by Bredna
Re: Instrument BO
I spent about a year researching what could be safely used to disinfect whistles (and flutes).
I've had lots of bits of tonewoods soaking in various things for a few years and check how they are going every now and then.
I would be a bit shy of using tea tree oil . It is a brilliant anti-bacterial, but it has some problems:
1. consumes most plastics better than turps or acetone.
2. it is volatile and has only a momentary effect.
3. It has nil affect on funguses and mold - by using it you actually prepare the environment and encourage them.
4. It disolves the natural wood oils and resins and can re-awaken movement in the grain.
5. When it dries it leaves the surface stripped and vulnerable to anything that wants to take up lodging.
Almond oil is the most often used oil for wet-woodwinds, but it does go rancid after a while. So some kind of additive helps - you can use the contents of a vitamin E capsule mixed with the oil - this prevents putrfaction.
I found that sandalwood oil is the best thing to dissinfect wood. It does not disolve the natural resins (or plastics), it is effective against most pathogens .. and it smells nice.
It is expensive, but you don't need a lot of it - I mix 25ml sandalwood to 1 litre of almond oil.
Get the pure stuff if you can. And get the Australian variety - it is more dissinfecting.
If you can't get the pure sandalwood oil, then you can use the cheap "aromatherapy" version - this is usually cut at 9 parts in 10 with rapeseed oil - so you don't even need to mix almond oil with it .. but it is less economic over time.
Now all I need is something to put into my Bulgarian Gaida .. the inside of the goat still has hair on it.
# Posted on July 11th 2011 by Mozle
Re: Instrument BO
As a young fela someone told me milk on a hanky could help clean stale rosin residue off my fiddle. Genious here tried it for a few days and no one would play down wind of me in a session for weeks after the milk turned.
Gerry O Connor once took the belly of my fiddle while fixing it and found lots of old tobacco and stale crisps!
# Posted on July 11th 2011 by iwerzon
Re: Instrument BO
Robin Morton used to tell the story of sitting next to Cathal McConnell after he had oiled his flute with oil from a tin of sardines. Not pleasant.
# Posted on July 11th 2011 by Weejie
Re: Instrument BO
LOL Weejie! But strangely enough, it comes as no surprise..
# Posted on July 11th 2011 by On Sabbatical
Re: Instrument BO
At Newcastleton, I was cleaning out the windway of my whistle with a leaf and was trying to stuff the leaf all the way through the hole. Then the leaf got stuck, so I was trying to push it out with a piece of grass but that got stuck too. At this point, I decided the whistle was going to be out of commission until I could get it home. I eventually removed the plant matter with a knitting needle, after a few unsuccessful attempts with objects like a wadded up paper towel and the tweezers and leather punch of a swiss army knife.
And to think I have almost three university degrees!
# Posted on July 11th 2011 by DrSilverSpear